Strength lies in differences, not in similarities

Make the most of each moment - have fun!

Treat others the way you would like to be treated

Positive Comments

I would just like to send a quick email expressing how lovely and well behaved I thought your children were when I was sat on the underground yesterday, 21st February.

They had obviously been on an exciting trip and being a teacher myself, I understand how difficult it can be to have children act 'sensibly' on public transport. They were wonderful and you should be very proud.

Best wishes,
Lauren.

21st September 2015

Hello. My name is Tynna. I am currently in college studying to become an early childhood teacher with a concentration in the special education department. We have an assignment where we have to choose what type of school we want to make a brochure for. I have chosen elementary grades k-2.

Anyway's... I simply googled "elementary schools" to see how people advertise for their schools. yours was the first one I opened. I have to say that your school looks fabulous! You have so much to offer the children, and you seem to be very active in the community. And the fact that you have a huge part in the "no-bullying" movement really hit home for me. I have a 7 year old son in 2nd grade and a 5 year old daughter in kindergarten. I continuously teach them about bullying.

I just wanted to tell whoever, or all of you that you seem to take great pride in your school! From a random person that has no connection, it seems that you care, your informative, and you generally want to make a difference in these kids lives.

You all deserve a huge pat on the back and a round of applause.

Tynna

Maine, USA

17th July 2015

Hi Donna,

Kathryn and I just wanted to say a huge thank you for yours and Rob’s time today.

The content of your presentation was exactly what we required and the ability for the delegates and ourselves to get involved in, as well as see, all the sports that you have been engaging in was fantastic. The delegates have come away having thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as well as having gained invaluable knowledge about how engaged a school can be with the Olympics both in the run-up to the Games and also the legacy it can leave post the event – something that through all of your hard work was absolutely clear to see.

From a personal perspective, it was amazing to see the amount William Bellamy was engaging in with Get Set and the enthusiasm was evident from both the children and also yourself and Rob – we can’t thank you enough for this. The stories, such as Bobby’s, were particularly inspiring and we’d love to share these with others, including the BOA / BPA.

I’d also like to mention what an absolute credit your children are to your school. They were extremely polite, well-mannered and enthusiastic throughout and are a testament to the great work you are doing at William Bellamy.

I’ll have to brush up on my Goalball skills for next time! I hope that the leavers prom goes well tonight and West Ham win!

Thank you very much again for a wonderful visit. All the best for the future and we’ll be sure to be in touch for all things Get Set related.

Best Wishes,

Matt

Matthew WookeyBusiness Development Executive

15 July 2015

Dear Jo

Thank you again for your time today when I visited William Bellamy Primary School with Stephen Noon.

I learnt so much from you, and from your teachers talking about their work. I am immensely impressed with the huge improvement in Key Stage 2 SATs and your explanation for this including the focus on data, getting the middle leaders taking ownership of the data, and providing a structure of cover to enable staff to do the work needed.

The atmosphere in the school is inspiring. Both in the playground and in classrooms, I saw happy, focussed and well-behaved children. You and your staff are transparent about both your successes and where you need to improve. You are prepared to experiment, be creative, and take risks to see what works to drive up standards and to meet the needs of pupils and their families. You have an inspiring vision of the place of the school in its local area. I look forward to seeing how the parents hub in the playground develops.

It was a pleasure to meet Kelsey Clark-Davies and other teachers. I wish you all a good summer and look forward to seeing you in the Autumn.

Best wishes

Evelyn

Evelyn Carpenter | Cabinet Member for Education and Schools

10/07/15

Dear James

Please could you thank the Head teacher, staff and children for inviting me in to the wonderful school of William Bellamy Primary. I SO enjoyed teaching and realise just how much I have missed it! David, my son, really enjoyed playing the trombone and piano in front of the children too. The pupils were very friendly and “warm” towards him. The pupils were well behaved, polite and really enthusiastic on the whole. I also spotted some real talent in music,acting and movement. The staff and pupils were an absolute pleasure to work with.

Kind Regards

Cllr Lynda Rice

P.S Thank you James for making my three days run really smoothly and helping me feel relaxed and welcome in the school.

07/07/15

Dear Ms Preston,

The Leader, Cllr Darren Rodwell has asked me to email you to pass on his thanks to all your staff and students for organising such a wonderful Fun Day recently.

He was particularly impressed with the students who had made the pottery pieces that were shaped ‘like a 50p piece’ to mark the Boroughs 50th Celebrations, of which he purchased one, and this is now in pride of place on his desk in his office at the Town Hall.

If you could please pass on his congratulations to all the staff and students for such a wonderful day, I would be grateful.

Belinda

Belinda Lee | PA to the Leader of the Council

06/07/2015

Dear Mr Singh (James),

On behalf of Amy, Nicola, and Myself, I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to visit your school and talk to the children. We had a really good time, and was really blown away by the knowledge that the children posses!! The children were really friendly and we had a chance to talk with some of them during "down time", such as breaks and lunch.

Both Amy and Nicola asked me to express their thanks (as well as my own), for the opportunity you gave us to meet some truly wonderful (little) people, and we all agree that the future of Barking and Dagenham looks very bright when these kids grow up, if this one day was anything to go by!!!

We all wish you, your staff, and of course the children, all the very best for the future, and hope that we might be able to do this again one day. Please pass on our deepest heartfelt thanks to the children for making our day so special.

With the very best regards, and deepest thanks

Malcolm Galvin

Brigade Member St. John Ambulance Newham East Unit

20th June 2015

Hi Esther

I would just like to thank you and all of your staff for this morning, it was an amazing event and our families really enjoyed coming in and taking part. I already had some lovely comments about how lovely the school, teachers and children are. I will get some comments for you and a copy of the register. Thank you again the children were so good with their instruments and singing.

Thanks for involving us J

Many Thanks

Leah Dexter| Early Intervention | East Locality

17 June 2015

Ms Preston
I have the great delight to be the grandfather of one of your pupils, Ruby Sprought. As you may or may not be aware that today 16th June was her fifth birthday. To help celebrate this we had a smallish birthday party on Sunday for her friends and schoolmates which was attended by about 22 people from William Bellamy and held at Robert Clack School.
Having seen the animal like and totally unacceptable behaviour of the previous party on the day I have to tell you how proud I was of Ruby and her friends and family. Family behaviour was never to be in question as we have high standards in relation to manners and respect of others.
However the purpose of this letter is not to boast about my family but it is to congratulate and complement you and your staff at William Bellamy for the standards and principals that have obviously been engrained in such short time by the staff. The manners of the children were beyond reproach and it was obvious from the diversity of the cultures of those children that not all that they exhibited was from home learning but was mainly down to the education delivered within the school environment. You and your staff deserve to be congratulated and to feel proud.
Please feel free to use this document in any forum that you feel would benefit the school.
Thank you from a very proud and grateful grand parent.
Yours faithfully
Ken Roast

21/05/15

Dear Miss Preston,

Just a quick word to thank you for the warmth and hospitality you and your colleagues (including reception and in particular Mrs Essien) gave me when I visited your school (14/5/15) to observe one of our students on work placement. The lesson proved to be very successful and the student is emerging as an outstanding practitioner. This is in no small measure to the support and advice given by your team and in particular Mr Taylor. The pupils I came into contact with also proved to be pleasant, polite and enthusiastic and I am confident that this is due to the positive learning habits developed in the children by your team.

A pleasure to visit your school and I wish you all the best and look forward to a possible visit in the future.

Best regards

Ken Pollard B.Ed(Hons), M.Ed

Lecturer/Link Tutor

Leeds Beckett University

18.05.15

'Dear Katie, Donna and James,

Many, many thanks for agreeing to present and doing it so wonderfully at today’s Obesity Summit. You demonstrated perfectly how important health and well-being is to your school community and the impact that you see it having. Those personal stories are really important –thank you! I’m sure it’s as a result of the benefits you spoke of that developing a early years healthy schools model was seen as an important action to explore in the future.

Public Health England were at the event and came to see me at the end to say how impressed they were by your presentation in particular. I think we will be hearing from them again with reference to the work you are doing, which is great.

Jo, thank you so much for releasing your staff and making the school's focus on heath and well-being such a high priority.

Many thanks again

Best Wishes

Jo' (Jo Caswell - PSHE Adviser)

06/05/15

Re:adopt a Chef

Hi Jodie and Katie,

I just wanted to say how well the sessions went yesterday and how wonderful the children were. Thank you for looking after me and I would also like to thank Mr Ranjit Singh for looking after me and keeping me hydrated with water and tea.

Kind regards

Idris

Positive feedback about our school from a consultant from CEOP

Dear Kelsey

The e-safety sections on your website are excellent. I particularly like the parent page where you have embedded the CEOP Jigsaw video.

'Hi, My Grandmother was headmistress of the Girls department in the First World War till she married my Grandfather at Romford. The newspaper report of the wedding refers to a wonderful gift from the school.

My daughter and I will be in the UK 12-13-14 May and will visit St Andrews Church where they married. It would be great to visit your school and maybe Francesca could briefly speak to the students about her Great great grandparents and the connection to the school.

My Grandfather George was wounded at Gallipoli and was recovering at Hornchurch hospital (a hospital for New Zealand soldiers) where he met Mabel West who was a member of the Women’s Volunteer Reserve. They sailed for New Zealand in 1917.

Letter of Recognition

I am writing to thank you, Miss Wright, Yvonne and pupils from years four to six from William Bellamy Primary School who came in and sang carols at King George and Queen's Hospital during December. During your time your pupils raised a fantastic £158.77 as a result of the carol singing and with all the choirs over £2500 was raised! The kind donations raised during your singing will enable us to make the hospital experience a better one for all our patients as a difficult time.................'

Chris Stevens

King George & Queen's Hospitals

Head of Fundraising

16th December 2014

'Dear Jo and Staff,

I'd like to thank you all for generously offering up your classrooms to the Essex/Redbridge visitors on Friday. It's the hallmark of a confident school that teachers teach with their doors open!

What colleagues saw was the consistency of approach to learning and high expectations of children. You are achieving something special for the community there, and all good wishes for the holidays and the New Year.

Best,

Roy Blatchford'

15th December 2014

Hi,
Just a message to say how brilliant miss o'sullivan of year 2 is as a teacher she is the only one that can control my son and keep him on the level. I think she deserves some recognition as she is a fantastic teacher. Just wish my son could have her all year every year :)....one of the best teachers I've ever come across.

12th December 2014

Hi Bianca
Thanks for a lovely morning in WBP last Friday.
I really enjoyed judging the book corners. Please let staff know that I was very impressed with the standards and so glad to see book areas in every classroom. It was hard to choose!!
Hope you have a good Christmas.
Kind regards
Sally

I had to write to thank Donna (Mrs Rose) for all the effort she put in to make the tournament run smoothly. At the last minute she managed to put two teams into the competition.

They both reached their respective finals, with both eventually losing narrowly. This was even more impressive as the teams only had the bare amount of players.

If you could pass my thanks on to Donna and the children for all the hard work they put in during the afternoon, I would be most grateful.

Yours sincerely

Roger Freeman

Tournament Organiser

18th November 2014

Dear Staff

I had the pleasure to share a number 5 bus journey with a class of your delightful pupils and their chaperones last week (17th November, and I think they had been to a party as all were holding party bags). They were so cheerful and well-behaved, and they put a smile on the faces of all the other passengers.

Please say a thank you to the children and their chaperones for brightening the day in such a lovely manner.

Kind regards

Tessa A Sparrow (Mrs)

13th November 2014

Joanne

Can you please pass on my thanks to all of the children and staff at William Bellamy for making me feel so welcome whilst at the school delivering road safety sessions.

Should you require any further classes or assemblies over the course of the remainder of the school year please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Hello Miss Preston,It's me, Neda. I miss you all so much! Say hello to Miss Olatunji for me please!
I haven't left this school long ago but it feels like FOREVER! I passed William Bellamy a few times but I never managed to say hi, however, I might have some time during my holidays to come over.
The transition from year 6 to year 7 is probably the hardest move I made, but I'm trying my best to work through this period of time! I hope that the future year seven's will do so too. From time to time it becomes tough and I wonder what would it be like to be in William Bellamy again, since this school is definitely the best school in England, but I keep my head up and try my best.
Enough about me, how are the children in the school doing? I hope they are doing well and enjoying their learning. Sometimes I like to look through my window and overlook the happiness of the children playing in the playground! I wish the children the best of times in school. As for the teachers, I miss them a lot, especially the ones who taught me.
Thank you for reading my letter Miss Preston, I will hopefully see you soon.
Sincerely, Neda

11th November 2014

From Parent of Year 1 Pupil:

'I cannot commend Katie's teachers enough - they are so helpful, supportive and amazing. I trust Katie will thrive because of their efforts , care and love for the children. Thank you!

Dear Jo, many congratulation to William Bellamy Primary School for achieving the School Games Gold Award – our first and only school in the borough to achieve this level of Award. It is a tremendous achievement and demonstrates how well high quality physical activity, PE and sports opportunities are delivered to all pupils across the school. I know many staff are involved in providing these opportunities but I must single out Donna Rose for particular praise. Donna works incredibly hard and has brought a great vision of what an Active School should be and is leading and delivering that vision involving all pupils across the school.

With best wishes

Elaine

Elaine Burgess

School Games Manager, Barking and Dagenham SSP

Barking Abbey School, Sandringham Road

Barking IG11 9AG

T 020 8724 1125 M 07415 960455

E-mail: burgesse@barkingabbeyschool.co.uk

Look at this amazing comment from one of our former pupils

Dear Ms Phillips, This is your former student from class 6P Enoch. I am just writing to you to say how overwhelmed I am seeing the students education progress from the last few years. I also acknowledge the fact that 6P has been transformed into the class known as , "Gold". Once again I just wanted to say "Hi" to all the determined, hard-working pupils of WBPS.

GOOD LUCK to all the year 6's that are approaching the arrival of the SATs!! DO YOUR BEST!

P.S, I see the school is doing very well in all of the sports competitions.

We came to visit the Nurture group and both the SEB students and the staff were extremely welcoming.

The school as a whole looks like you're doing a fabulous job and we thank you so much for allowing us to visit.

Best Wishes,

Sidney Slaney

Eastbrook school

Hi,

We visited the SEB Nurture group today and had a fantastic couple of hours! Everybody made us feel extremely welcome and it was lovely to meet all the SEB pupils.

You have a wonderful school and I hope to visit again in the future.

Kind regards,

Sarah Small

Eastbrook School

29/01/14

Dear James, Yvonne, Jo and Lisa

We just wanted to write to say a huge thank you for letting us visit your special school yesterday. Your warm welcome to your commitment to making our day successful was evident and we thoroughly enjoyed putting a face to all the names we have been talking to over the last few months. William Bellamy is indeed a great school and your children are very lucky to have such dedicated staff leading them.

I have attached the file of photos as promised and as discussed would specifically like to have your approval of the use of the shots in the playground where many children are visible - these will in no way be used until we receive your approval and if they are not approved we will simply delete the files.

We look forward to speaking to you again shortly about Parent Deal and indeed working together in the future - thanks again.

Kind regards

Kat

Kat Foster-Jenkins <kat@schoople.com>

Dear Miss Preston,

I am writing to give my compliments and say big thanks to you and all managements. I checked the school website and I saw all your efforts to communicate with everyone using different languages. I saw my own language (dialect), Yoruba. It's very interesting and am so impress. Well done and keep it up.

Thanks,
Kemi ( Parent of child in Year 4 Shuboj )

Dear Miss Preston,

I attended William Bellamy for the duration of my primary schooling, before going on to Robert Clack in the 2006/7 school year, where I completed my A-levels earlier this year. I am currently attending Connecticut College, a highly selective private liberal arts college in the United States on a full scholarship.

I have heard very positive things about how the school is progressing, especially when it comes to giving pupils an insight into what they can achieve by working hard, both inside the classroom and out. Having come from the same background as the current students at William Bellamy, I appreciate the frustration they may feel moving forward as they try to equate their brimming ambition with perceived limitations to their progress. Therefore I applaud your efforts to show just how attainable success is, regardless of where one's talents lie.

In a few days, I will be returning to Dagenham, and will be home until 19th January. I would love the opportunity to perhaps speak to the current students about the importance of working hard and taking advantage of the opportunities that come their way, as well as sharing some of my experiences of American culture, and with people their age I have met as part of a volunteer programme at Connecticut College. I hope to be able to act as a real example of someone from their area who has achieved an ambition that at one point seemed impossible.

Best,
Rob Jones

Hi there

I have just been over to the Christmas tree outside the Civic Centre to hear the children singing their Christmas carols. They were terrific and all looked like they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It was wonderful to see. Well done to all of them!

Please pass my thanks to everyone in William Bellamy Primary School choir who came and sang so wonderfully at the Civic Centre earlier this lunchtime. Thanks too to the staff who supported the choir to make it happen.

I and all who came along thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wishing you all a peaceful time, wonderful Christmas and Joyful New Year!

As some feed back, the talent show on Saturday was a great afternoon. The talent on show performed to the highest quality. The hall was packed, it was very well supported. The result was the fairest method in giving the vote to the paying customers.

Both Yvonne and James must be highly commended for their efforts and organisation. All the pieces fitted the jigsaw.

Many thanksfor allowing Lewis and I to be part of the day.

Yours sincerely

Ray (Grand parent)

23/10/13

Dear Mrs Clark-Davies,

I would like to say a massive Thank You for your support with a recent situation concerning my son Callum. I can't believe how quickly it has been resolved. There has been a noticeable difference with Callum already, he's happier and not so worried. The school handled the situation really well and very quickly.

I can't speak highly enough and I do recommend and praise the school to other parents who do / don't have children who come to this school.

Thanks again,

Melanie North (Parent)

Dear Miss Olatunji and 5O,

We've had another fantastic two weeks with 5O! All the pupils have behaved impeccably and their manners have been excellent.

Miss Olatunji has also been the most enthusiastic teacher we've had and joined in with making the lip gloss and model fingers.

Another excellent class at William Bellamy.

Mrs Ward

Robert Clack School

Click here to read about the impression our students made on an adult from another school whilst on a visit!

​I am writing this letter of commendation as I decided a letter of praise would be an appropriate gesture of appreciation for the obvious dedication and hard endeavours of those who instigated the planning and execution of William Bellamy Primary School's Fete Day, particularly the Events Team.

As a parent of a pupil in the school I have attended events in the past, and have always had a lovely time, but I was truly impressed by the larger scale activities, rides and stalls which had been arranged to entertain both the children and adults at this year's Summer Fete. This, coupled with great orchestration and organisation and the very friendly atmosphere created by the staff and volunteers who dedicated themselves to the day - made for a fantastic day!

As my daughter enters into Year 5 I very much look forward to many more enjoyable forthcoming events - speaking not only for my own family but also on behalf of numerous children and parents with whom I conversed on the day.

Lastly, I would like to state that as an overall overview of the school, how very well structured it is to support the development of children. This is due to the very good administration and teaching staff who have an excellent ethos - of continually striving to nurture young minds - in both educational and social skills - for future adulthood. This is whilst recognising that learning should be fun, whilst ensuring a high level of educational content - a difficult task to aspire to, but achieved wonderfully by the Head Teacher and Staff at William Bellamy.

Thanking you on behalf of myself and my daughter, the general consensus of the many other parents with whom I converse on a daily basis.

Mr R. J. Littell (Parent)

12th July 2013

Dearest J.Preston

I attended your school on Tuesday to carry out a presentation regarding Aspiration week, and I just needed to comment on the excellent behaviour of every person I met. The school children were exceptional; they were very polite and welcoming, and even after every child I spoke to said Thank you. Normally I wouldn’t notice this, but it definitely stood out.

I expected the hall assembly to be noisy whilst all the children filed in, but as I was setting up my demonstration I heard a quiet softly sung chorus of what can only be described as Angel’s voices, this literally stopped me in my tracks and felt a tear coming to my eye.

I couldn’t believe the emotion I felt after coming out of your school, I was there doing a presentation to inspire them, but actually the children inspired me, I felt like I needed to change my attitude, my outlook on life. I need to do more!

This also goes for the team of staff that work there, I got the impression that the teachers actually have TIME for the pupils, they were prepared to listen, I felt every one is ‘on-board’ with what they want to achieve with the children.

I spoke to 3 of your students from a Nurture group, on one hand I felt that it was sad that these beautiful children at this age can feel like “I can’t do this”, or “I’m not good enough”, on the other hand how wonderful it is that the teachers are helping them, these children have someone who will listen to their worries and help support them at this important stage in their lives.

I cannot express how privileged I felt being at your school and it was only for one day.

I just wanted to write to you to thank you so much for inviting me to your school and providing me with the opportunity to speak to some of your girls about the financial services industry. I was so impressed with the William Bellamy Primary School and everyone that I met there. I thought that the pupils I met were so well behaved during the presentation and were really engaged. That really came across with the number and level of questions that they had after the presentation. Everyone made me feel so welcome and I would be very happy to come in again if required. If anyone has any further questions that they would like answered, please do not hesitate to let me know.

I was on my way into work yesterday morning and, because of some problems on the C2C line, ended up on a district line train into London along with a large number of other commuters.

The carriage I joined also had a number of children that I believe were from your school. The children in my area of the train were well behaved, polite and seemed to be enjoying the first part of their trip, despite the crowded conditions of the train. They listen to the member of staff they were with and were cooperative and calm when it came to leaving the train onto a busy platform.

I just wanted to let you know as their good behaviour was a credit to your school. I hope that the rest of their trip was enjoyable for them and the staff.

Kind regards

Joe Steel

9 May 2012

Dear Miss Moreline,

We have been in to work with 5M over the past two weeks and they have behaved impeccably. We have been to four different schools and 5M were the most enthusiastic class we have taught! They are a credit to the school!

Mrs Ward and Sixth Form

Robert Clack School

21 June 2012

Hi,

Having just met some lovely pupils from your school on their visit to Chessington World of Adventures today I would just like to congratulate you on their behaviour! They are a credit to your staff and the school!

We look forward to a return visit!

Thanks

Sam Chandler - Team Leader

26 March 2012

Dear Jo,

I just wanted to let you know that the children of William Bellamy School were a real credit to Barking and Dagenham at Lord Coe's official opening of the Becontree Leisure Centre on 23.3.12.

Lord Coe commented on their enthusiasm and immaculate behaviour. The school and their parents should be very proud of them. Thank you to the staff for supporting them so well.

Best wishes,

Helen Jenner

Corporate Director

Children's Services

26 March 2012

Dear Miss Preston,

As the school games co-ordinator for All Saints, Dagenham Park and trinity schools I would like to thank you for bringing your students to the multi-skills festival I organised with Emma Gillian for the opening of the new leisure centre.

Your students were fabulously well behaved and Lord Coe (as well as many other "important people") were very impressed your students! The Y9 Young Leaders from All Saints thoroughly enjoyed running their first ever event with students as keen as yours.